Lieutenant General Russel Honore lived up to his 'John Wayne dude' nickname, blasting complaints that red tape or poor security were snarling relief efforts as "B.S."

The fiery general, in charge of the military component of the mission, lost his rag during a press conference after President George W. Bush's visit to rescue coordinators here.

"That's B.S. It's B.S.," Honore raged.

"I can tell you that is B.S. We have got 300 helicopters and some of the finest EMS workers in the world down there.

"There is no red tape ... there are isolated incidents that people take to paint a broad brush."

Honore also lashed out at questions from journalists at the Baton Rouge emergency operations center concerning the security situation in New Orleans.

"You need to get on the streets of New Orleans, you can't sit back here and say what you hear from someone else.

"It is secure, we walk around without any issues. Why the hell are you trying to make that the issue, if you can help, get there and help," he said, saying that people were being scared away by reports of violence.

When one reporter argued that there still reports of bureaucracy and unrest stalling relief efforts in some outlying parishes of New Orleans, Honore fumed: "I don't care if it is Hancock County, Mississippi -- we are not going to have that kind of issue."

The comments that sparked Honore's verbal blast were apparently made by US Representative Bobby Jindal, who represents a New Orleans district.

"The bureaucracy needs to do more than one thing at a time. It's appropriate to save people with helicopters, but it can't be done to the exclusion of everything else," Jindal was quoted by Time magazine as saying.

Honore did not discount that Jindal may be basing his complaints on "isolated" incidents, and said he would follow up with him.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin dubbed Honore 'one John Wayne dude' in admiration for his efforts when he showed up in the city last week.

"He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving," Nagin said in a radio interview on Thursday.

He is trying to make sure that he covers all of his bases, however, the only people who are going to remember Jindal's idiotic statements come election time are people who write checks to his campaign. I guess I will give that check I would have written to him to one of the Mississippi Republicans who don't blame anyone for their problems.

Brit Humme was right that LA politicos from both parties at every level are reading off the same page. The reason is simple, LA doesn't have politicians it has Mafia Dons and they all have something on each other. I think before this is over, the LA rock is about to be turned over and reveal to the country the slime it hides.

"He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving," Nagin said in a radio interview on Thursday.

Well, we know that Nagin likes the cussing, it is the only thing that he seems to have a modicum of talent for. But what I really believe is meant by his comment is a sense of jealousy. Deep down Nagin knows that if he had half of the testicular fortitude that Honre has, he would not have made such an ass out of himself.

That would be item #4. Item #1 is to save the political class of Louisiana; item #2 is to insure that the flow of graft is not interrupted because of something small like a catastrophic natural disaster. At #3 is to set a photo-op for any Hollywood type who wants to come and make an ass out of himself Sean Penn . Then you come to #4 which is to save people.

That would be item #4. Item #1 is to save the political class of Louisiana; item #2 is to insure that the flow of graft is not interrupted because of something small like a catastrophic natural disaster. At #3 is to set a photo-op for any Hollywood type who wants to come and make an ass out of himself Sean Penn . Then you come to #4 which is to save people.

[...every single one of them, D's and R's, were on TV blaming Bush before the winds died down.]

That's because everybody knows this hurricane was just another plot by Bush, Cheney, and Rove to make their oil buddies rich. It couldn't be just a coincidence that Katrina hit the heart of our refining capacity on the week before Labor Day, thus allowing price gouging at the gas pumps.

NO MORE HURRICANES FOR OIL!

/s

But series-ly, there is an undesirable consequence to this bashing of the government by the disaster victims and their representatives: The people of America who usually open up their bank accounts to give to those in need are going to be more likely to snap their checkbooks shut and say "Screw those whiners."

[Frankly, I cannot think of anybody who has stood up for Bush -- except -- much as I hate to say this -- Trent Lott. Not one "conservative commentator."]

From the few hours of Limbaugh I listened to last week, it seemed he did a more than admirable job of sticking up for the Fed's response and he also reamed out the people who were attacking the government and who were wasting no time making a political issue out of the disaster.

The White House should really consider this guy for Press Secretary. He's got what it takes to handle the media these days! I've never heard a briefing like this where the person taking questions just simply said what needed to be said.

These are the people I know off the top of my head. It is clearly possible the MSM could have hid others, so I leave that an option since they like only publishing negativity, but until shown to be the case I only give credit where due.

I wondered that, too. It seems that one of the ways in which language changes is the gradual creep of slang/informal usages into what is considered to be correct. Another one that really jumps out at me is 'busted' to mean broken. This was definitely considered improper back in my school days...

OK, I saw this press conference live, and I had a very different read on it. The reporters were asking legitimate questions about the two chains of command in LA, because D Gov. Blanco had refused to federalize the relief effort, like Alabama and Miss. had (with R governors). That means the National Guard and the U.S. armed forces where under separate command in LA. Reports were coming in that this led to a lot of red tape and difficulty coordinating the relief effort. Director of Homeland Security came lame response that "everyone was in the same room and got along OK".

The general (who is not well spoken- uses a lot of dees and dats) went on a rant that was not dissimilar to the NO mayor. During his bluster he said the reports were B.S. He asked the source of the report and was told it from an area congressman. This was embarrassing to the general, not the reporter. He said he would have to apologize to the congressman later.

The follow up question had to do with violence in NO. The kind of stuff we've all been reading about for days on FR. He said there was no violence and everything was absolutely under control.

I don't buy it. This guy is all bluff and did not represent the armed forces well. He's covering up for the Democrat governor of LA and downplaying the armed thugs running around the city. He bluster is probably pretty effective in getting subordinates to hop to and for intimidating girl reporters, but if I was his commander I would question his veracity and ask some more pointed questions.

Perhaps Jindal, Vitter, and a few others need to get a 'few' email w a cc to Ken at the RNC. Newtie should get a few mail, too telling him that he can kiss any slim chance he had in '08 goodbye. He can't support our President in time of need, we can't support him.

"started cussing Nagin deems that a quality in himself he admires as well"

Nagin owes a lot of $$$s to the cussin' jar. I'll forgive Honore his - -he can say That's B.S. to reporters all day long - -I'll put a quarter in my jar for him -- this guy doesn't suffer any fools - -he is GRRRRRRReat!

Has *anyone found a site offering the *whole* blistering that Honore gave the Press Corps? Since it was originally broadcast, all i've seen is sanitized clips that over up the fact that Honore tore the Press a "new one" and called them what they are: *Liars*, even if not using that word.

I'd love to DL it, or even just watch it agauin and again, on streaming Vid...:o)

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